January 15, 2017

Writing this one, I put on the old Byrds (and rock as well) classic “So You Wanna Be A Rock’n’Roll Star”. Fits perfectly. Why, what? So you wanna be a modern (copy)writer, all the advice tells you to get heavily involved into social media - any and all of them - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest… should I go on? I probably even don’t know how many are there anyway.
You can resist as much as you want, be afraid of how much time you’ll have to ‘waste’ out there in the cold world of electronic media, get overwhelmed with all the information… the fact is, at some point you’ll have to do it, No ifs or buts about it.
The thing is, whether all your fears will come true or whether you will strike that electronic gold streak, basically depends solely on you. What are the chances of getting lost in social media? Infinite. What could be the possible benefits. Same answer.
The reason all lies on you is to know your reasons why (write it down, it is yet another practice) you’re getting out there and to pace yourself accordingly. Oh, and have your wallet close by, you’ll need it at some point.
When you start doing your research on how to approach this social media ‘thing’, expect your mailbox to be swarmed with all sorts and sizes from experts and ‘experts’. But, don’t be afraid, very soon you’ll know who stays and is read and who ends in trash the instant it is in.
Next, you’ll have to make a choice of the social media you want to start out with, based on what you want to achieve. More than three at a start and you’ll forget when was the last time you went to kitchen to grab something to eat. Of course, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are among the obvious choices.
Then, like any other work assignment you set yourself, you’ll have to set the times you want to check these media. Be prepared for thousands. of messages, pitches, ads…Very soon you’ll end up with thousands of bytes of info and you’ll have to start becoming picky, who’s your friend, follower, influencer, mover, shaker. The sooner you start doing that the better.
Then come the add-ons: specialised apps to follow the media themselves. These turn into a necessity almost a week after you dip in. 
And then come the analytics - and so does the money, out of your pocket that is. Unfortunately, it seems to be the only way it will get into yours. So you have to be choosy and do all the trials and demos, so that you can stick to the best and cheapest (preferably free, if such exists) solution.
But all in all, it shows to be a necessity in which you can get lost unless you pace yourself properly. To remind you, you can always put “So You Wanna Be A Rock’n’Roll Star” on replay. Of,course, you will have to imagine that its title is "So You Wanna Be a (modern) Writer".